agitcorp

Music from David Byrne and Brian Eno. Their first collaboration in 30 years.

My sister, Linda, and her business partner Chris have been putting out fantastic food on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for over a decade. It has been great to watch from afar as Steamers Shellfish To Go has developed into a local institution in the beach community. They have worked tremendously hard and put in the time to build a great business.

Steamers Shellfish To Go (www.steamersshellfishtogo.com; entrees from $12) in Corolla is a local legend for good reason. Their steamer pots (like clambakes to go) are perfect for a beach picnic.

Bigger Image and More Pictures Up on Flickr!

As K will tell you, I have a thing for books. Old books, new books, classics, geeky stuff, doesn’t matter.

But when you live in a house with no shelves, it can became an issue. When first laying out the plans for the renovation of this house back in 2003, I knew I wanted shelves in the living room and I also knew I didn’t want the standard ye olde book shelves with molding.

It took a few years but last week Michael came and made the dream a reality. These pictures don’t really do them justice and they still need to get a coat of paint but man do they look great! Can’t wait to fill ‘em full of books and then sit back on the couch and contemplate which one I’m going to read next!

Thanks Michael! Great work.

As my neighbor Sara put it, just when you completely give up on the city of New Orleans they go and do something cool.

I couldn’t believe it when they first began striping St. Claude Avenue for bike lanes. I still recall a conversation with the Department of Public Works when they said “We don’t want to put bike lanes on the streets because then if someone gets hit the city will get sued.” Never mind that the absence of action has rarely protected anyone from a frivolous law suit.

So when the paint when down and the lane was official, I decided to take a ride and return my overdue book to the Alvar branch of the library. It was a beautiful day and it turned out I was not the only one taking advantage of the new lanes.

If I’m not mistaken, that is Greg Schatz in front of me enjoying the ride down St. Claude.

So congratulations to the city, to the Metro Bike Coalition, to the Regional Planning Commission, and to anyone else who had a hand in making this happen! Great work everyone.

And if anyone wants to attend the Official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, it will be tomorrow at 10:30 am outside the Universal Furniture building (view google map ). Below is the official announcement from the Metro Bike Coalition :

St. Claude Bike Lane Ribbon Cutting

Tuesday, May 20 - 10:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m.
You are cordially invited to attend a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to open the first designated bike lane in New Orleans! It will be held outside the Healing Center/Universal Furniture Building, at the corner of St. Roch and St. Claude

We hope that MBC members and friends can attend with their bikes, to show our enthusiasm for bike lanes and to be available to ride the lanes for media coverage. The Regional Planning Commission strongly encourages that bicyclists wear helmets and have back reflectors, so that coverage of the lane openings can also share a safety message with the wider community.

I’ve had a Sherwood Lap Steel for a couple of years now. I got it from Amzie down in the Marigny. While I liked the idea of the lap steel, the sound out of this one was never very good and it wouldn’t hold a tuning.

So a couple weeks back I got a wild hair and decided to re-wire it. I picked up two 250 pots and set to work replacing the old ones.

I rarely work on the electronics of my guitars having successfully screwed up quite a few in my younger days. But given that this particular instrument has little monetary value and had almost no value to me in its barely-functioning state, I decided to dive in.

When I had the new pots in and plugged it in, I couldn’t believe the difference. The pick-up in that thing sounds fantastic!

So to complete the transformation I picked up a set of grover tuning pegs and replaced the mis-matched set that was on it when I bought it. I suspect that if there is a Sherwood lap steel purist out there in the world, they will be horrified by my desecration of this old war horse. Sorry about that.

The good news, however, is that I now have a kickin’ little lap steel with great tone that stays in tune!